Look north to our greatest ally against Islamic State

Australia is now embroiled in a desperate campaign to stop the feared and brutal Islamic State (IS) in its tracks. Whilst the IS war machine and its thugs are currently contained to the Middle East, there are deep, and justified, concerns that the ultimate objective of IS is to create a world-wide Caliphate.

Our government is right in embracing the Muslim community here in Australia in an attempt to stop the flow of – in particular – young Australian Muslim men heading off to join the war in Iraq and Syria.

But immediately to Australia’s north sits possibly our greatest ally in turning Muslims against IS and their hostile ambitions: Indonesia.

Our next door neighbour is home to some 205 million Muslims; the largest population, by country, of Muslims in the world. Ironically, the vast majority of Indonesians are Sunni rather than Shi’ite and in that context they share the same denomination as used by IS. But that is where the common thread ends. Indonesians broadly detest IS as they feel this rogue organisation has simply ‘stolen’ the good name of Islam to use it to achieve their own evil ends: that of regional and World domination based on fear, murder and hatred.

Indonesians, by any fair measurement, embrace an extremely moderate form of Islam. Women in Indonesia work in all forms of industry. They run banks, giant companies, government enterprises and have also held the highest office in their land, that of President.

Most young women wear jeans and tee-shirts on weekends and formal business clothes during the working week. They use mobile phones, are addicted to Facebook and Twitter, and have as much freedom as do females in Australia. The women who choose to adopt a more conservative dress code use the hidjab, a head scarf that maintains modesty, yet leaves the face exposed.

Walk around the Indonesian capital of Jakarta today, and the greatest safety issue is how much smog you will swallow. This is not to forget that Indonesia has faced dangerous threats to safety before, as we saw in the bombing of the Australian Embassy and the Marriott Hotel in 2003-2004, which was the work of an extremely small minority of extremists wanting to attack Westerners over the original attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq by the US and its allies.

On my regular visits to Indonesian kampungs (villages), it’s not ‘extremist terrorist hotbeds’ that I find. What I do see is caring communities that look after each other, where children are welcomed in neighbours homes and seniors are consulted and respected. The local Mosque plays a key role in building communities and resolving problems in a way that we have often lost here in Australia. Yet this is how many Muslim families live here in WA. Not that much of a threat really, and perhaps we could actually learn from their lifestyle practices?

Back in Indonesia, even Sidney Jones, arguably the region’s leading expert in terrorism, has been ‘astonished’ at the level of Twitter conversations (Indonesia is number three in the World for Twitter usage) criticising IS and their followers.

So what do we need to do in our efforts to stop this dreaded organisation from expanding its evil empire into Asia and beyond?

Firstly, we must avoid being tricked by IS into taking actions that would galvanise Indonesians against us. This does not mean we avoid making morally right decisions such as Australia joining forces with the US in protecting minority groups in Iraq. It just means we need to be very measured in our approach. IS would like nothing more than to win-over 205 million ‘brothers’ in Indonesia, so any backlash here in Australia against decent Muslims’ could produce a counter-productive outcome.

Remember when the US invaded Afghanistan in 2001? Indonesians really took no sides in this war, until the US president George W. Bush gave all Muslim countries a foolish ultimatum: “You are either for us, or against us”. And in one short sentence the US turned public opinion in Indonesia from that of ambivalence to enormous resentment of the US-led forces, including Australia. We must not make the same mistake again.

Secondly, in just under one month, Indonesia’s president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) will retire as his country’s president. Although not highly regarded domestically, SBY is, as an international statesman, highly recognised and regarded.

Australia should be using its new-found high profile in international affairs to have SBY appointed to a very senior UN role to lead discussions with the Muslim world about the role of IS and the other regional conflicts involving countries with predominately Muslim populations.

The West can push as hard as it will to bring about a cohesive role for the Islamic nations against IS but a leader from the World’s largest nation of Muslims could have a far greater impact upon the Arab nations and those who seek to use Islam to inflict harm to countries around the world.

In the meantime we, here in Australia, should be thankful that Australia and Indonesia have recently resolved our recent spat over spying, and are now able to work closely to ensure our region – including Australia – remains free from the scourge that is Islamic State.

 

ross.taylor@indonesia-institute.org.au

 (This article first appeared in The West Australian newspaper as an ‘Opinion’ piece on Tuesday 23^rd September 2014)